Asya guided Ilana and Gabriel to their rooms, taking them through wide, brightly lit corridors and malls busy with foot and hoverboard traffic.
“How many people are on this ship?” Ilana asked.
“Between staff, families, diplomats and other civilians, just over five thousand.” Asya gestured towards a plaza as Ilana caught the scent of food. She hadn’t realized how hungry she’d gotten. “Please, you’re welcome to our dining court. Most of the options are complimentary but the Admiral is happy to cover whatever you fancy.”
When was the last time Ilana had eaten? Hell, what time was it even?
She glanced at the corner of her contacts, which had synced with the ship’s system. The time was 2100. Then she realized they were on UTC, the universal time zone for space.
How was it only the afternoon since her departure? She felt like she’d lived days in the last several hours. She wondered if her family had seen the news yet.
Her net connection had been spotty since the explosion but she’d sent a message to the family chat. Thank Gaia she hadn’t told them what shuttle she’d booked before she left. She figured it was one less thing for them to worry about and she’d been right.
Hey, just in case you saw the news today, I’m totally fine. I’m waiting for my next flight out of Luna now. Everything is going great!
She wasn’t sure if she overdid it on the last bit. The message was stuck on “delivering” for a while but seemed to have finally gone through.
The Admiral had braced Ilana and Gabriel for the news cycle and suggested they stay off their feeds for now. Victims’ families would be notified but their names would remain confidential as survivors. The public didn’t know yet that Elder tech was involved in their survival but the Admiral wasn’t sure how long that was going to last.
Asya led them to a quiet corridor off of the plaza where she gave them access to rooms two doors down from each other. “Inside your rooms, you’ll find a suit printed from your med scan measurements and an evidence bag. If you don’t mind changing now, I’ll wait out here to gather your clothes for forensics.”
Ilana had forgotten about that part. “Oh, right.”
The door to her room scanned her palm and opened to a low-lit suite, the lounge and bedroom separated by a long aquarium. Soft lights cast a brilliant display of luminescent fish into dramatic relief. The lounge was half plush divan, half pillow pit.
The entire far wall looked over the bright curve of the Earth below.
For the first time since she’d left home, Ilana felt truly alone.
She was, by all means, out of contact with everything that had anchored her entire life, in a literal free-float between places. She had no one to rely on but herself.
The realization was as humbling as it was empowering.
Ilana would’ve spent more time taking in the room but she didn’t want to miss her chance to make plans for dinner. She changed quickly into the suit laid out for her on the bed, making minimal adjustments to the fit as it seemed to breathe effortlessly over her body.
She stuffed her old suit into the evidence bag and sealed it. She left her cross-chest bag in her room before stepping back out into the hall.
Just as Gabriel stepped out of his room.
Ilana didn’t bother hiding her smile.
They approached Asya and handed her their items. She reminded them that she was available if they needed anything and then left the two of them in the hall.
For a moment they stood apart and studied each other.
“So,” Ilana started.
“Dinner?” Gabriel finished for her.
“Gaia, yes. I’m starving.”
“Then let’s not delay.”
The food court centered around a towering plantscape and water feature, with flowers of impossible colors blooming along a thick and viny tree trunk bustling with greenery. A trickling stream wound its way down the trunk to an opalescent pond filled with koi.
Ilana gasped as she neared and saw fireflies flittering all the way up to the ceiling. The more of the ship she saw, the more she realized just how much greenery there was all around them. “I never imagined that I’d find nature like this out in space.”
Still, the vegetation looked different than the greenery down on Earth. Flowers were more vibrant, sometimes shimmering in and out of different colors. The foliage was more cultivated, the leaves refined with few imperfections.
Ilana reached out towards a flower then hesitated.
“Go ahead.” Gabriel came up beside her. “You can take one if you’d like.”
Ilana plucked a brilliant pink-purple flower off its stem. A heady sweet aroma enveloped her as she brought it to her face and took a long breath.
She laughed, tickled and a little incredulous at the audacity. “That’s stronger than any flower I’ve ever encountered on Earth.” She couldn’t help but bury her nose back into the petals. The rush from the next deep breath she took made her sway on her feet.
Gabriel gently steadied her with a hand on her shoulder, his chest at her back. “I too have found the vegetation on Earth to be more… subdued.”
Ilana shot him a look. “Well, naturally. If you get used to adding sugar to all your desserts, you’ll lose your taste for fruit in comparison.”
She broke away and approached a curved booth along the window, separated from the others by leafy vines. Gabriel joined her on the opposite side as she slid onto the seat.
“I see your constitution has settled,” Gabriel said.
Ilana couldn’t help but tease him just a little bit. His comment about Earth’s plants had stung. Plus, she’d never encountered anyone who used so many big words so often. “Dr. Fontaine, I believe it’s improper to ask ladies about their ‘constitution’.”
A slow smile slid over his face as he settled into the seat, stretching his limbs and practically inviting Ilana’s eyes to take him all in. “Ah, back to formalities I see, Mx. Travers. Is it because of what I said about Earth’s plants being subdued?”
Ilana realized her gambit had backfired because everything about him teased her attention. She licked her lips at the thought of doing the same to his collar, teasing apart the top buttons and explore the skin underneath, see where they went from there.
Ilana gathered her wits. “All I’m saying is I bet I could pick a peach from my aunt’s farm that would blow your mind.”
Gabriel didn’t challenge her. “I bet you could,” he said with disarming seriousness.
Fuck. His voice resonated in a deep and primal place in Ilana’s mind, shooting tingles straight between her legs. For a moment she wondered what she’d gotten into – what the hell kind of combustible proposition she was playing with – flinching as she would at the touch of something too hot to handle. But she could take the heat.
With a wave of her hand, Ilana unfolded the holographic replicator menu over the table. “So what do you usually have when you can have anything and everything?”
This replicator menu was more extensive than Ilana had ever seen, with categories of food split by course, ingredient, taste, and geographic origin. Ilana flipped through the featured section, with elegant spreads of appetizers, roasted meats, charred barbeque, hot pots, and some dishes she didn’t even recognize. Her contacts prompted her to confirm accessing the menu with her global user identity and she accepted.
“I’ve got my favorites.” Gabriel activated the menu on his side. “But today feels like it calls for something a little more special.”
Ilana nodded thoughtfully. “I suppose we did cheat death. That was one of the closest calls I’ve had in a while and I wasn’t even on the job. Of all the search and rescues over the years, I’ve never been a subject of one. I would’ve preferred to keep it that way.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to coordinate that nearly as well without you.”
Ilana blushed, his praise hitting a little different. “Thank you.”
“What would you like to drink?” he asked her.
“I’ll have a bourbon, neat.” The replicator menu picked up Ilana’s voice as she spoke and put her order into her cart.
Gabriel held up his fingers. “Make that two.”
The order updated with his item and went through with a flick of his fingers.
Within thirty seconds, the panel at the end of the table slid open. A platform came up from underneath and presented their drinks.
Gabriel raised his glass in his hand. “To cheating death.”
Ilana bowed her head and clinked her glass with his.
“Huh.” Ilana smacked her lips after tasting the bourbon. “Speaking of subdued…”
Gabriel chuckled. “Despite the merits of synthetic liquor, it is hard to beat the real thing on the complexities of taste.”
“It’s not terrible,” she said.
“And it won’t destroy your liver,” he quipped.
“I thought you could just grow a new liver if you needed it.”
“Certainly. It just doesn’t seem like a particularly pleasant experience to go through.”
Ilana took another sip and picked her order from the menu. “I can’t argue with that.”
Gabriel did the same and they folded their menus closed. “What would you do after? Whenever you had a close call at your job?”
“Honestly? Hit up the bar and leave after last call with a jug of moonshine from the back. You know, the kind that makes you breathe fire, probably made by the cook or their mom. Try to tip over cows like idiots on the way home. Maybe find someone to make out with.”
They shared a smile and Ilana’s pulse quickened. She was usually successful at this dance but something about him threw off her usual rhythm.
“It’s hard to settle down after you get that amped,” she continued, her nerves driving her to fill the silence. “Like you’ve got to push your body to the limit on your own terms to get back your equilibrium, some sense of control. Better to burn off that energy together as a crew than swallow it up on your own. Despite the shenanigans we got up to, we were less destructive than those who tried to deal with it alone.”
Gabriel tilted his head. “That sounds challenging but also… nice.”
“‘The strongest bonds are forged in fire.’ That’s what my squad leader would say after a storm really kicked our ass.” Ilana took another sip of her drink and licked her lips, a warm flush spreading from her chest to her fingertips. “I take back my ‘subdued’ comment. This drink’s got kick.”
“That’s another benefit of the synth.” Gabriel watched her with an easy gaze, his eyelids heavy. “You don’t ever build a tolerance.”
She giggled, enjoying his regard. “How delightful.”
“I just assumed you have replicators where you’re from. Did you not?”
“Not at home.” Ilana laughed. “No, xir, you’d get one of those gadgets into our actual house over my mother’s dead body, and even then her ghost would haunt you for it. Most of our neighbors still don’t have replicators but the city and town center have plenty.”
“And yet you’d never have synthetic alcohol?”
Ilana’s reaction was entirely instinctual. “Hell no, are you kidding? Most places couldn’t stay in business unless they served local spirits. If they didn’t, we’d just smuggle in our own.”
“Interesting.” Gabriel straightened and rested his elbows on the table. She had his full attention now, but in a different way – probing, analytical. “And why is that?”
Ilana blinked. “I don’t know. Everyone thought synth was kind of lame if you could have the real thing instead. Some complained about the taste, others the effect, but I’ll bet there were people like me who’d only tried it years ago or never at all.” She swirled the liquid in her glass. “I suppose we were ultimately missing out all this time.”
Gabriel nodded, apparently satisfied by her answer. “My mentor likes to say there are only two certainties in this world: the constant nature of change and humanity’s dogged resistance to it. Yet somehow we’ve evolved despite ourselves.”
The replicator panel at the end of the table slid open and presented a wooden boat as long as the table was wide, filled with sushi on two separate decks.
Ilana wished she’d snapped a photo of Gabriel’s stunned expression. The boat had wooden marbles built into its hull so Ilana could slide it closer to them. When the platform came up again, it delivered what must have been his order – an entire roast barbecue rack flanked with sauce, bread, biscuits, and pickled vegetables.
“Damn.” Ilana’s mouth watered at the aroma. “You’re going to share some of that, right?”
Gabriel looked pointedly at the boat. “Only if you share some of that.”
She made a show of counting the rows of sushi. “I guess I have some I could spare.”
“It’s a deal, then.”
They clinked their glasses together and dug in.
Previous Part | | Next Part
Subscribe on Wattpad or Patreon to stay updated.